"Excellent source of used books.
Sometimes the book just does not exist as new.
Then, I go to Alibris and find it.
Order it and receive it.

Alibris is a middleman so shipping problems are the fault of the individual bookstores. However, I have NEVER had a problem in the last 3 years."

"As said before, Alibris is a middleman service made from a a variety of public vendors. If anything gets to you late, or or if anything goes awry, it is for the most part the vendor's fault. Personally, I don't have any problem with Alibris; I've ordered upwards 10 books from them and only one book has ever not made it to me on time, and that was due to transit issues (FYI, I still got the book a month after the purchase, after they issued me a refund four days after reporting it). My only gripe is that for the money I spend on shipping, the books should really get here within a week or so, but some take up to two weeks to get here on standard shipping. Other than that, the service has been fine, minus that one incident."

"I purchased a book that was suppose to be new. Instead i got a used book. I complained to Alibris who took several weeks to deny me. By this time, too much time passed for me to file a complaint with paypal so i am stuck with paying new price for a used book."

"This is probably the worst online store I have ever purchased anything from. I first ordered a book around end of February - early March. I waited and waited and never received anything so I wrote to them regarding the status of my shipment and they only wrote back over 5 weeks saying that only then the book was being shipped. By then it was too late so I canceled the order and the book never came in. I later learned from my bill that I was charged for this book so I had to write letters trying to explain my situation to alibris, who by the way weren’t helpful at all and didn’t do anything besides saying "sorry for the inconvenience". DO NOT BUY FROM THEM. THEY ARE A HUGE SCAM/FRAUD"

"I am very happy with all books I've purchased from Alibris."

"Alibris is just a middle man service. If problems occur, it's the individual seller you're dealing with. Some are excellent, some are not.

I am happy to say I had a flawless transaction. I searched everywhere for a title and it was the only one out of my list that was priced well thru an Alibris seller.

I used a $1 off promotional code that worked flawlessly. The seller emailed me within 12 hours to let me know my book was in the mail. It arrived four days later via USPS Media Mail. It was well packaged and exactly as described.

Couldn't have been smoother. I'm very satisfied and highly recommend Daryl Beyers as a seller via Alibris."

"Please be careful when placing order with alibris. They are extremely slow in shipping and sometimes they claim that they have shipped, but the item will never arrive. The only offer a refund after 1 month of waiting and not receiving the item. Not to mention, they immediately charge your credit card even before shipping it.

I strongly doubt their practices and I would recommend everyone to shop somewhere else."

"Never received book. Customer service very pleasant; no problem getting a refund."

"Very good prices. They even offer some coupons and free shipping over $49. I always use bestbookbuys.com to check the cheapest place to buy a book. If Alibris is listed first, I would not hesitate to buy from them!

My order was eventually canceled, but that was because the individual seller (not Alibris) cancelled my order. CS responded to my emails and is currently looking into it.

*EDIT* From September to December, I bought over 20 books from Alibris! I received all of them within 3 weeks!"

"Alibris is S L O W. Slow slow slow. Alibris has very good prices and an easy ordering system. The good news seems to stop there. Unfortunately I didn't read seller reviews more carefully detailing problems before ordering from Alibris. For background for this note I should add that my wife and I order dozens of books online each year, the majority of them academic titles. In the past year I have never had an order take longer than nine days from any part of the country. Alibris took four days to "process" the order, something that other book sellers seem to do on the same day an order is placed, before shipping the book. So far it has been nearly three weeks since the order date. Thankfully it's an inexpensive book that's widely available elsewhere. All it's cost me is waiting time and a disputed charge to my credit card issuer. Inexpensive lesson learned. DO NOT ORDER FROM ALIBRIS unless you're prepared for substandard service."

"I ordered an item for Fathers day and paid an extra shipping charge to ensure that it would be here for Fathers day. It is over 2 weeks past that date and I still have not received my product and so far my attempts to find out where the package is have not been helpful. Plus, they don't seem to care that the package isn't here nor was it on time and the fact that I paid extra to have it shipped quickly and it wasn't shipped quickly is somehow my fault not theirs."

"They'll take your money, claim they shipped it, blame the fact that you ordered free shipping on you and the order won't show up. I had to learn a $35.00 lesson.

My order allegedly shipped 4/28/2008 from a town 180 miles from my home. It has yet to show up in my mailbox and Alibris, who farms their tech support out to India, incidentally, says this:

Thank you for contacting Alibris about the status of your order. Your order number 24411526 was shipped on April 28 via standard shipping, which is the shipping method you requested at the time you placed your order. It was shipped to the address you supplied when you placed your order.

Unfortunately, we do not offer tracking for packages shipped via standard shipping. Packages shipped via this method usually take 4-14 shipping days for delivery, though occasionally delays of up to 30 days can occur. Though these delays are rare, please write back if your package doesn't arrive within 30 days of the shipment date so I may investigate this matter further.

Thank you for your patience. If I can be of further assistance, please write back.

Best regards,
Renu Khushalani

It has now been 19 days. I will dispute the credit card charge Monday morning and find the book elsewhere. I should have read the ratings before I bought. Shame on me."

"This is my second order in a year with them and have had no problems so far with any of the sellers."

" Alibris has fraudulent business practices that are worthy of a criminal investigation.

I was looking for a book as a Christmas gift and found that it had sold out at all the leading booksellers. Alibris claimed on their website to have over 10 copies available and also offered expedited shipping. After placing the order the shipped to door time quoted was 2-3 days. The next day I received a shipping confirmation email. I didn't receive the book for 7 weeks.

Alibris' automated system disallowed me any interaction with a customer service rep until 30 days after the order date. Frustrating to say the least."

"Horrible. They take too long to do anything. If you have time to wait, go for it. But make sure that your getting an actual book and not just the cd-rom that comes with the book like i did! Because apparently when your on alibris the ISBN is the only thing that matters. It doesn't matter if the description forgets to tell you that the price doesn't include the ACTUAL BOOK. Buyer beware, both this site and others that sell on it are amateur at best. In addition, Expedited shipping takes 9 days. In my case, that was from Miami to Pa. I've had things come from amazon in AZ using their Free Super-Slow shipping and it got here way faster."